The plot sequentially introduces you to the suspects and invests in their stories such that you are drawn in to empathise with their choices. This is an approach which tends towards slice-of-life and resists the temptation to tell half-stories in order to either demonise or create saints. But it is at the expense of tension and suspense. On the whole the drama has a consistent pace which lacks the expected adrenaline hits, but makes up for it with a deeper characterisation than is normal for a crime drama. This is the strength of the drama and what keeps you watching.

However, there are some insurmountable credibility gaps for me in the script, which often feels like a couple of naive wannabes imagining what grown ups do. It was in desperate need of a butt ton more research and a great deal of beefing up.

For instance, I’m totally underwhelmed by the credibility of the FL being the CEO. With her attitude she wouldn’t have survived the first 5 nanoseconds, let alone three years. A CEO of a large company is constantly beset by politics and aggression, both internal and external. The purpose of their job is to lead from the front, forge a path through the political crap and preserve the integrity of the business whilst moving the company forward. You have to be a fighter, not someone who bows down to internal critics and arrives at a crucial board meeting with nothing concrete prepared other than an apology, only to be saved by some random and an emotional plea. Give me strength… This one dug a hole as deep as the Mariana Trench in the believability stakes for me, which I found really hard to get past.

Then there is a load of stuff around the journalism sub-plot. Without going into spoilers it was so clumsy and obvious that in some places it just undermined the characters making them look unprofessional, incompetent or incapable of fulfilling the role the plot demands. Okay (maybe) in a let’s-suspend-our-disbelief thriller, but in something claiming cred in the slice-of-life stakes, it’s a real non-starter.

This type of stuff is totally unnecessary. Are the writers just incapable of writing a strong, competent female role? Because a good script writer will find credible ways to work their plot rather than undermining the belief the viewers have in the characters.

Oikawa Mitsuhiro was laughably awful as Goto, but otherwise there were some nice performances. The script really held back from plumbing the depths so all the characters were not too far from bland, but within that the actors managed to capture the empathy of the viewer.

If you want PP at its worst then you will find it in the costuming of the FL. Most of the time she looks like a frumpy sack of potatoes. Who wears this stuff? As her costumes all look suspiciously like mature age maternity wear for a fundamentalist sect I was wondering if Yoshitaka Yoriko was pregnant at the time. There are occasions when she wears a belt, however, it’s never tight and the dress looks 5 sizes too big, so I’m still undecided on that one. Imagine turning up for the shoot of Ep6 and seeing that black and white monstrosity hanging up for you to wear. You’d be seriously thinking about breaking the contract.

I began to really take appreciative notice of the soundtrack about half way through. The composer is Yokoyama Masaru and his entry on MDL lists a long history of composing for drama and film. Here, he uses an edgy, contemporary style, utilising synth, strings and pianos with a dash of atonal emphasis, non-melodic structures and gritty rhythms. It really helps to create some tension and provide an undercurrent of texture in a crime drama that has it’s focus elsewhere.

What my rating means: 6+ Some aspects of it were OK but it had serious flaws. It will pass the time but you can find something better.